- From: Andy Heath <a.k.heath@shu.ac.uk>
- Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 17:06:34 +0100
- To: Charles McCathieNevile <charles@sidar.org>
- CC: Harry Loots <harry@ikhaya.com>, RUST Randal <RRust@covansys.com>, w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> But if you go to court (actually you go through some stages, but I > think the phrase communicates the right idea) you will be tested > against some law that says "you must not discriminate". In the notes > that explain the law, one of the things they say is "the best guidance > we have for how to avoid discriminating is to follow WCAG". That is, > they are not sure, in advance, of how to decide whether you > discriminated. That has to be tested in each circumstance. They ssupect > that if you haven't done what WCAG asks, you probably are > discriminating, and if you have done it, you are at least doing what is > recognised as the right thing to avoid it. If you meet WCAG a complaint > can still succeed on the basis that you need to do something more, but > you are unlikely to be faced with a damages claim. If you don't meet > WWCAG the court is mor likely to decide that you are discriminating on > purpose, by not meeting the common community standard of reasonable > behaviour, and you may face a damages claim. > > I am pretty sure that the situation is similar in the UK and I would be > surprised (altugh I have enver read canadian law) if it is much > different in Canada. well the situation hasn't really been tested in the UK. Here the law says you must make reasonable adjustments but what exactly is reasonable is not determined in technology terms. But what you say about not meeting the common community standard would seem like common sense and I would *guess* that that is how it would be interpreted in court. There is some notion somewhere in European law that says WCAG is compulsory but I don't know the detail of how that as a european thingy (dunno its formal status - directive maybe - please someone clarify) would apply to the UK. andy -- andy _______________________________________________ Andy Heath a.k.heath@shu.ac.uk
Received on Tuesday, 24 August 2004 16:07:59 UTC